Preliminary Feedback Notes

Africa RISING ESA External Mid-Term Review

16 March, 2015

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You can also download the reviewer's presentation HERE

Process of review:

• Literature review
• Emails/Skype/Telephone
• Field visits

Purpose of brief – provide initial assessment on challenges, way forward and opportunities
Still to come – recommendations and prioritization

Achievements:

• Impressive range of partnerships
• Platforms initiated
• Impressive biophysical activities
• Some good science with some scaling out
• Mother – baby grand daughter spill overs

Way forward:

• Update ESA framework
• Clearer definition of outputs and activities….“ sometimes the activities read like outputs and vice versa”
• Revisit indicators – identify and confirm baselines, targets(end of project is looming so this is essential), milestones etc
• Theory of change approach…rethink?
• Think through the conditions - some can be addressed as presented in the ESA project document

Implementation strategy – Innovation Platforms

• R4D – IP’s are not just dissemination mechanisms but need to contribute to demand led research
• Provide facilitation to R4D/IPs

*challenge of administrative costs

• Strengthen linkages from district (strategic) to village / community levels (operational)….need to specify what the linkage between the two levels are and what role each of the platforms at district and village levels do
• Agenda/plans need to reflect and build on learning cycles
• Value chain analysis to inform interventions, plans & action research

Scaling pathways

• Recognize the role of existing farmer groups and community networks
• Where is the social science?
• Recognition of gender to improving livelihoods – both men, women and youth
• Institutional analysis to identify and support CBOs
• Facilitate farmer to farmer extension
• Map, monitor and assess babies and granddaughters-spill overs

RO1: Situational analysis and programme wide synthesis
Challenges:

• Baselines were not done?
• Farmer characterization
• Inventory of technologies
• Establishment R4D /IPs
• Work with community priorities
• Where is gender?.....Needs to be included

Way forward:

• Clarify R4D purposes, partner roles, and agenda – learning cycle
• Develop links from District to community e.g. DAESS in Malawi to farmers
• Ensure farmer representation
• Need for facilitation, monitoring and learning

R02: Systems Improvement
Challenges:

• Timely arrival of inputs/compensation…..planting could be more timely, some farmers complained of this. How do you compensate a farmer that loses due to the late arrival
• Soil erosion
• Socio-economic evaluation including gender (not just modeling)….consider consultative budgeting
• Input availability – seed, fertilizer, inoculants esp. for soybean…..where do farmer get them. Can they afford? Getting legume seed in Malawi is a big challenge that causes challenges for sustainability…..there is research needed to get to know what makes it difficult for farmers to access the legume seeds
• Marketing constraints
• Silo effect & overlap with other research
• Seed availability
• processing

Way forward:

• Step-wise recommendations – low, medium and high
• Map and learn from adoption pathways
• Value chain analysis to inform the future
• Utilization of dambos
• Link with national platforms
• Other crops? Potatoes, sunflowers, cotton, tobacco - the final report will prioritize these suggestions
• Cereal based seed production especially on the ongoing vegetable work in Tanzania by AVRDC
• QDS for local sales
• Link with TOSCI
• Think of a vegetable component in Kongwa-Kiteto

R02: Livestock – fodder establishment
Challenges:

• Use of FEAST…
• Trees and fodder legumes unsuitable for high altitudes
• Napier disease in bulking nurseries
• Farmer selection – one of the farmer wanted to remove napier….so was this the right farmer??
• What happened to forage choppers and balers?

Way forward:

• Need for feeding trials – build on existing groups….work with them and build into what they are doing
• Ensure other management aspects are addressed – e.g. housing and health
• Integrate with other SI research activities
• Carry out a value chain analysis (dairy in Malawi)
• Need to address mechanization issues
• Consider introduction of manure composting as an output for intensification especially for the farmer typologies involved in the livestock

R02: NR Management
Challenges:

• Long term nature of landscape research - they are long term
• Research demos for awareness raising
• There is conflict between crop farmers and pastoralists
• Intense rainfall events can destroy all soil and water conservation structures
• Free grazing during the dry season

Way forward:

• There need to be some short-term recommendations from the ongoing work on NRM e.g. fertilizer and agronomy packages, contour intervals/length, maintenance needs
• Rainwater harvesting demos
• Policy briefs for stakeholders at all levels- decision maker support for bye-laws* think of putting together some policy briefs/meetings with significant decisions makers
• Some awareness raising needs to be done// considered…..think of how to use the linkages to decision makers like directors of DARs /COSTECH etc.

R02: Post harvest
Challenges:

• Mechanization needs to take into account affordability, availability, ownership,maintenance issues
• Scaling up of triple bags – need to consider doing a partial budget analysis and also think about the issue of availability
• Warehouse and business management by farmer groups/individuals

Way forward:

• Awareness raising on aflatoxin need to be done further

R02: Food nutrition and processing
Challenges

• There needs to be more coordination & lesson learning across countries – between all the players involved in this
• High illiteracy rates amongst young mothers – communication tools

Cross cutting issues

• Commodity value chain analysis

- Need to identify potential interventions
- Agree at platform level how to address this

R03: Research on scaling approaches

• Network mapping of babies and granddaughters/spill over to establish who, why what and modifications found
• Support and learn from scaling approaches funded by bilateral USAID development partners (NAFAKA and INVC)
• Address farmer requests for “hand-outs” through provision of knowledge and facilitation by R4D platform facilitations

R04: Monitoring and Evaluation

• Consider Studies on how technology is incorporated:

- Into households livelihoods
- Comparative case studies of household food allocations, household labor allocations, including possible hired labor following the uptake of sustainable intensification
- Assembling socially and gender disaggregated data on household participants

• Questioning issues of gender interpreted as women’s issues and initiating gender research around technology that does not limit gender to specific technologies and/or approaches

Communication and Knowledge Management

• Largely target at higher level stakeholders (good PR focus)
• Need to target other stakeholders, R4D platforms partners (District and Villlage) and farmers (establish best methods)
• Improved feedback needed on research progress results and best practice guidelines to extension and farmers

Data collection and Use

• Many scientists unaware of AR tools – PMMT and Wiki
• Protocols and capacity building requires – ongoing
• How does CG, NARS and University generated data be incorporated (or not) into AR’s data base?

Partnerships

• Absence of baseline institutional analysis – there are some partners that we could have benefited from working with but we didn’t manage to involve in AR work/activities
• Need to identify partners working in the same areas:

- Farm Africa In Babati
- INADES in Kongwa Kiteto
- TLC in Malawi
- Other research project in Malawi (SIMLESA, ICRAF, CIMMYT, CIAT, McK etc)

• Private sector partner representation remains weak

Management Issues

• Address contracting arrangements between partners to reduce funding delays
• Improving coordination and networking mechanisms at research sites
• Build stronger integration …..Promote the Africa RISING brand instead of promoting specific CG centers at project sites. Integration of activities on project sites. Avoiding “silo” approaches between research and development partners, regular meetings
• Improving links/ communication with ARIs in Tanzania especially HQ and DARs in Malawi
• Greater use of local and regional consultants where capacity is limited

In Conclusion

• Well done especially on Output 2 - there is lots to build on, challenges to be addressed and priorities to be determined
• Main challenges relate to output 1, 3 & 4
• Review team next steps

- Completion of draft report – end of March/early April
- IITA consideration – mid April
- Final report to IITA – end of April